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Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Pipelines Reaches Over 100 Member First Nations and Tribes

WINNIPEG, Nov. 29, 2016 /CNW/ - Treaty 1 — The international Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion held another ceremonial signing today (hosted by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs with special guest Dr. David Suzuki in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Treaty 1 Territory). The Treaty Alliance, launched on September 22, 2016, now counts well over 100 First Nations and Tribes who have formally agreed to stand together to stop Tar Sands pipelines, including Kinder Morgan, Line 3, Energy East, Northern Gateway and Keystone XL.

"At this historically critical time when human civilization is on the brink of climate disaster, we have no choice but to do things differently – that means looking to Indigenous wisdom and teachings, but also Indigenous leadership," said Dr. David Suzuki after attending the ceremonial Treaty Alliance signing. "Indigenous Peoples did not get us into this mess, but fights like Standing Rock and the Treaty Alliance's fight against Tar Sands expansion are showing us the way out."

As the Government of Canada gets ready to make a number of tar sands pipeline announcements, the Enbridge Line 3 project has flown under the radar due to a campaign of misinformation by Enbridge. The company falsely describes the Line 3 project as a mere "replacement" project, but the company is actually replacing an old line, which could transport only 390,000 barrels of conventional oil a day, with a brand new line which has much greater capacity and which follows a different route. According to page 8-3 of Enbridge's Certificate of Need Application for the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, this new line will have the capacity to transport 915,000 barrels of dilbit Tar Sands oil a day (not the number of 760,000 bpd cited in Enbridge's application to the National Energy Board) – a difference of 525,000 barrels (the same amount of Tar Sands dilbit that would have been transported by the Northern Gateway pipeline). An increase in capacity of 525,000 barrels a day would allow for a major expansion of the Alberta Tar Sands and constitute a major setback in the world's attempt to avoid a climate catastrophe.